Time was, when the local telephone directory came in two halves, one for residential numbers and the other for commercial, each a couple of inches thick. Has it now got so thin as to be not worth having? Reckon so.
It’s great size and weight was often referred to in comic one-liners. Not any more. The rot set in when British Telecom (BT) copied the example of the Thompson format to produce a more locally targeted market. Thing was, Thompson was something of an ‘upstart’ – BT already produced the definitive publication – the Thompson Directory as it became known, being most used as a quick reference supplement.
This is a copy of the local Phone Book that dropped through my door the other morning, I took this side shot because the red line mark seperates the two halves of the phone book today – each is no thicker than a camera lens cover.
I suspect many people are like me, in that if they’re going to use a phone book it’s most likely to look up the commercial number of a business they don’t use regularly. I’m located around 35-40 miles from my nearest cities (Plymouth and Exeter) and neither is featured in the latest book because they’re outside the area covered. As a result, when I do need an unfamiliar number I find ‘Google is my best resource’.
